


dreaming you've been dreaming about me

by gribbins



Category: McElroy Vlogs & Podcasts RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-12-11 11:58:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11713959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gribbins/pseuds/gribbins
Summary: “I’m glad it’s you.” Griffin’s voice shocks Nick out of his thoughts, but he doesn’t want to say anything, doesn’t want to break the reverie around them. Doesn’t want Griffin to stop talking. “I mean. I’m glad I’m going through this with you. I don’t think many people find out they’re married to each other in an alternative universe, but I’m glad. I’m glad this Griffin is married to this world’s Nick. And I’m glad you’re here with me.” Nick flushes.Publishing to get it out of my folders. I'm sorry about everything that's happened. Unfinished and will never be finished.





	dreaming you've been dreaming about me

**Author's Note:**

> Hey so, I don't know If i'm going to write anything for this fandom anymore. I'm considering writing some Simone/Allegra stuff, and some pat/griffin content, but i'm gonna need to take some time to think about it. I just wanted to put this up because I worked on it, and I want to get it out of my files. I hope y'all are doing okay, and that if my fic has brought you any joy that joy isn't tainted too much.
> 
> I love you and I'm sorry. I know we're all hurting. Message me on tumblr @thegribbenings if you need to talk, i promise i'll be there for you.

E3 is a strange space. It’s a large conference, even when it’s only press, and now that the public are allowed to attend it feels even larger. Nick likes it, enjoys the time he gets to spend each year with his co=workers, who too often are spread across the country. Seeing Griffin is always especially fun, as Nick rarely gets the time to hang out with him otherwise. Texas and California aren’t too far away, but it’s still far enough that he rarely sees him, rarely has the time to take a week out to crack jokes and drink shitty beer without worrying about how he’s gonna pay rent. 

Nick likes it but he wishes it weren’t so exhausting.

Him, Simone and Pat are all spread out across the couch, Simone leaning her head on Nick’s shoulder as they watch some dumb movie on a sci-fi channel. Pat is extoling the virtues of the movie. It’s rehearsed and practiced, the crutch of something stupid to take your minds off the bone deep exhaustion that comes from being surrounded by so much stimuli. They’re all sweaty and gross, and not particularly good company, but it’s nice sitting here, leaning on each other and simply being.

Griffin had gone to bed a few hours ago, yelling something stupid about being an old man who needed his 18 hours of sleep a day. Nick had made fun of him at the time, but now, with his eyes drooping he could only feel stupid for not going to bed earlier. He yawns and stretches, dislodging Simone from his shoulder. She makes an unappreciative groan, and tilts herself onto Pat instead, who resettles himself to deal with the pressure. Nick forces himself to stand up, and yawns again.

“Gonna hit the old hay now. Gonna sleep on that pile of hay Griffin put in the corner for me, is what I mean there” he says, the joke not really landing. It’s not particularly funny, but he’s too tired to really be funny. He’s too tired to really be anything, besides tired.

Simone hums out a ‘G’night’, and leans further into Pat “I need to finish watching this work of cinematic genius”, and Pat nods in agreement.

He walks upstairs to the room he shares with Griffin, and to the single bed that’s not terribly comfortable, but after the long day it feels like heaven. Griffin is snoring softly next to him and Nick smiles before drifting off. It’s good to hang out with his friends, at least a little. 

 

The sun hits his eye in the morning and Nick flinches, rolls over to get away from the light. It’s that comfortable place between sleep and awake, where his limbs are boneless and he feels limp and content, and safe. He’s warm through, and he dozes, for once not thinking about all the things he needs to do.

Eventually he realizes that he’s leaning on an arm, and probably drooling on it a bit too. Nick feels embarrassment shock through him, god. He doesn’t even know who he’s in bed in.

But then he remembers that it’s E3. And as much as that gives him a choice to get out and find people, he wouldn’t have taken someone home to the room he shared with Griffin, and he definitely shouldn’t be this comfortable cramped together in a single bed with someone. 

Griffin snores again from the room and Nick breathes in and out, maybe he can get up and sneak out before anyone notices, and take whoever’s in bed with him as well. Griffin’s snoring sounds much closer than it did last night. Nick finally opens his eyes.

Well.

That explains something. Griffin is in bed with him.

He’s slack and curled towards Nick, one hand over Nick’s hip and the other underneath Nick’s head, where Nick has probably been drooling on it for the last hour. He looks soft in his sleep, looks sweet and calm in a way he so rarely is when he’s awake. 

Nick doesn’t really want to wake him, but he needs his arm back if he’s going to figure out what the fuck is going on, and that means removing it from under Griffin. He goes slowly, trying to not wake him, but he jostles Griffin’s head a little too much and Griffin brings his hands up and rubs at his eyes before sleepily squinting at Nick.

And then he processes what he sees and he shrieks a little bit, and sits up in a whirlwind of movement. Nick would feel offended if he didn’t feel the exact same way. 

“What the fuck!” yells Griffin, quickly taking into account the fact that he and Nick are just in boxers, and the easy morning spreading into their room. “Did I crawl in your bed last night by mistake? Did you get in mine last night by mistake?” Griffin scrambles out of bed and in doing so, clearly takes in the room. Nick looks around as well, taking in the huge windows flooding light into their room, and the fact that there’s only a double bed in the room.

“This isn’t our room, Nick.” says Griffin, almost disbelieving as he states what they both have realized. 

“Yeah” says Nick, sitting up in bed and hugging his knees to his chest. He laughs off Griffin’s confusion and anger to hide the unsettling fear creeping under his skin. “Hey maybe this is a prank. Maybe Simone and Pat are outside laughing at us as they listen to you lose your shit. Maybe this is just a prank.” Nick tries a smile, and stretches out his legs and stands up out of the bed, the opposite side from Griffin. 

There’s a glint in the corner of his eye, something shiny looking directly at Nick, a framed photograph maybe and Nick walks towards it. He knows Griffin is saying something to him but he can’t focus. He picks up the photo frame off his bedside table and his breath catches involuntarily because. This doesn’t feel funny anymore.

It’s a simple black frame around a photo. It’s a nice photo, technically pretty certainly, but the subject matter makes Nick feel like an intruder. It’s a wedding.

It’s Nick and Griffin’s wedding.

He’s smiling out of the photo, beaming in a way that he hates to do for photographs, it feels too real, feels like too much of himself being caught. He’s squeezing Griffin’s hand, and they’re both wearing suits and Griffin looks terribly handsome, and so unbelievably happy. Happier than Nick has ever seen him. It makes Nick’s chest ache. He knows that their family are surrounding them, both their sets of brothers on either side of them, everyone beaming at the camera looking delighted. 

“Griffin?” Nick says, calling him over, and Griffin steps towards him.

“Fuck.” Griffin says softly, and Nick finally stops staring at this too happy Nick, and turns into Griffin. Nick felt struck looking at the photo but Griffin looks devastated. He feels like he can feel his heart in his throat, and he has no clue what to say. “We look so young. And so happy.” Nick doesn’t know what to say to that, doesn’t know what he can say to that. “I don’t think this is a prank, Nick.”

Nick shakes his head again, and gnaws on his knuckles, a nervous reaction he’s never really managed to get rid of. He looks around the room again, something about this room seems familiar, but he can’t put his finger on it. 

They check the doors anyway, still half-expecting to see Pat or Simone at the door laughing at them, but there’s nothing. 

The bedroom opens out to a comfortable living room, with a dark blue sofa in the middle of the room, and a coffee table next to it. The kitchen is warm and airy, and all of a sudden it clicks in Nick’s brain.

“Fuck, Griffin, I know this place! I looked at this place when I first moved to San Francisco, but I couldn’t afford it just by myself, and I was single at the time. It looks like we’ve lived here for years.” Nick says, as Griffin wanders over to a bookcase in the corner, filled with books that Nick knows aren’t his, and Griffin hums, running his fingers down the spines of books he obviously recognizes, and humming. Finally, he pauses on one, and pulls it out. It’s a scrapbook of some sort, leather bound and a little worn. 

Griffin plops himself down on the couch, pulling Nick down with him and opens it up to see a note from Travis. Apparently he and Justin had given them this as a wedding gift, a compilation of their relationship, photographs of them as awkward 20 year olds, Nick tucking his head into Griffin’s shoulder. A photo of Clint and Nick happily talking together. A photo of them moving into their first place together. Nick pushes himself away from Griffin, stands up and runs his hands through his hair. 

“This is just.” Nick pauses, breathes in, before starting again. “This is a lot, Griffin. What the fuck is going on like. Where are we. Why are we married. I’m wearing a fucking wedding ring, Griffin. Last I knew both of us were single and getting ready for E3! Now we’re in this fucking house, in fucking San Francisco! What the fuck. What the fuck, Griffin?” His hands are shaking a little.

“I know, this is- “Griffin pauses for a second, stretching his hands out on his knees. “It’s weird. I know. It’s some Star Trek bullshit Nick.”

“You know I haven’t seen Star Trek, Griffin”

Griffin laughs, panicked and a little on edge, but laughing, long and hard, and Nick starts chuckling with him. He’s still confused, still feels out of his mind, but at least he’s got Griffin with him. He’s the only person he’d find out he was married to in an alternative universe that they were trapped on with. Not that Nick has many opportunities like this.

Griffin stands up and leans himself on Nick, smiling easily at him. 

“C’mon, let’s go get some breakfast. You’ll feel better once you get some food in that belly!” Griffin pokes Nick in the stomach and Nick giggles involuntarily. Griffin is good at getting those laughs out of him.

Griffin pokes around their kitchen, finding some bacon and eggs and waggling them enticingly at Nick, and Nick’s stomach groans. Nick laughs and Griffin grins, and at least for a second things feel as close to normal as they’ll probably get.

Griffin takes control in the kitchen, which is helpful as Nick can barely do anything. He puts the bacon on a wire rack and into the oven, and starts scrambling eggs with milk and salt and pepper and some paprika. It’s fun watching Griffin in his element like this, Nick likes seeing him hum to himself as he sorts around the kitchen, finding some hot sauce and salsa in the fridge, and putting it on the little table in the kitchen. 

Nick starts checking the drawers, and when he finds the silverware drawer. he grabs two sets of forks and knives and sets them on the table. Griffin hums a thanks as he checks on the bacon before declaring that it’ll be done in 10 minutes. 

“Hey, want some coffee?” Nick says, noticing the same Italian coffee maker he has in his own place in the corner, a little red metal thing, but unlike the tiny one he has at home so he can make just enough coffee for himself, this one is bigger, clearly meant for two.

“Sounds good!” says Griffin, as Nick unscrews the bottom of the cafetiere and tamps down some ground beans. He then adds the water and sets it on the hob (check what called in US), turning up the heat. Nick always feels like he should get a more high-tech coffee machine but he’s had his little Italian one since college, and it makes the strongest coffee Nick’s ever had, so he’s loathe to give it up now. 

After about 5 minutes, it makes an unholy shriek and Nick grabs an oven mitt and takes the cafetiere off the hob, turning it off at the same time. He then grabs two mugs out of a cupboard, and pouring the coffee into the mugs, leaving room for a little bit of milk and sugar. It feels stupid to be accidentally living with a man without knowing what he takes in his coffee, but as hard as Nick tries he can’t think how he drinks it at all. 

Griffin is heating a little butter into a small pan, it looks well-worn, and he seems familiar with it. He pours the eggs into the pan in an easy motion, and leaves it for a moment, letting it start to cook, before grabbing a spatula and mixing the eggs around.

In the end, Griffin pours some perfectly cooked scrambled eggs onto a plate, before grabbing the tray out of the oven and portioning out bacon between their plates. Nick had never cooked bacon in the oven before but it’s crispy and delicious, and he hums in appreciation, watching Griffin smile as he eats. 

“I didn’t know you could cook.” Nick says, after a bite of bacon and eggs. Griffin flushes, looks a bit embarrassed. 

“I wouldn’t really call this cooking, it’s pretty simple. I do alright though, after I left university I got a bit bored of eating the same stuff all the time and I started to use those prescription services to learn more recipes. Now I mostly just look stuff up online, but it’s nice. Sometimes I bake as well.” Griffin looks a bit pleased with himself at this.

“That’s really cool dude. I’m glad one of us can cook. I’m awful in a kitchen, I burnt pasta once.” Nick laughs.

“How?!” Griffin yells, and Nick laughs even harder. 

“I don’t even know!”

 

After breakfast, they go back to trying to figure out where the fuck they are. Or well, Griffin continues looking around the house while Nick lies on the couch, suddenly exhausted. He thinks it’s the stress.

The phone rings while Griffin is still investigating, so Nick drags himself off the couch and towards a home phone that they mysteriously have in the house. Who even has a home phone anymore?

“Hello, Nick Robinson speaking” he says into the phone, some amount of bizarre phone etiquette still imprinted on his brain.

“Hey Nick, it’s Clint, I was calling to talk to Griffin but how are you guys?” Clint says, sounding happy to get through to Nick, even for a bit before Nick passes him over to Griffin. Nick has never had a conversation with Clint in his life but he knows Griffin loves him, and he imagines they probably know each other fairly well in this strange universe where he and Griffin are married. He thinks telling Clint that nothing is alright because he woke up in a strange universe where he and Griffin are married won’t go down well.

“Oh, uh. Hi Clint. Things are alright. Griffin made bacon for breakfast this morning, but other than that it’s an easy morning.”

“Good to hear! D’you mind grabbing Griffin for me?”

“Just a second” Nick says, before turning around to where Griffin is watching him with his eyebrows raised. Nick puts his hand over the recording area of the phone, and whisper-shouts “It’s your dad, he wants to talk to you”

Griffin walks over and takes the phone, answering it with an easy “Hi dad!” 

Nick guesses that Clint probably isn’t too different in this universe, and goes back to lying on the couch, half-heartedly listening to Griffin and Clint chat.

He’s half dozing when he hears Griffin hang up, and walk over to him. Griffin taps Nick’s legs until he lifts them, and then he sits down under them. It’s a bit overly domestic for them, but it’s sweet, and Nick finds he likes the warmth of being on the couch with Griffin like this. 

“What was Clint calling for?” he says, pausing in the middle for a yawn. He only woke up a few hours ago but all the panic took the energy out of him, and now he just wants a nap.

“Just calling about podcast stuff. Which kind of answers the question of ‘do I still do podcasts in this universe’ I guess.” Griffin says, smiling, but it feels strange to even consider a world where Griffin doesn’t do podcasts. 

“Maybe we should google ourselves, see if we can find anything about our lives that would tell us what’s so different about this universe.” Griffin raises his eyebrows and Nick flushes. “Besides the marriage of course.”

“Mhm, sounds good. Let’s just hope that this universe’s Nick and Griffin use the same passwords.” 

 

It turns out this universe’s Nick and Griffin do use the same passwords, which makes Griffin hopeful that they probably use the same bank accounts and pin numbers as well, so they can buy food without having to worry too much. Nick hadn’t even thought about that, but Griffin’s right, there wasn’t much food in the fridge besides the bacon and eggs and they’ll need dinner/lunch, and who knows if they’ll be here more than one day but if they are, they’ll need food then too.

The laptops are interesting as well, Nick finds photos of him and Griffin together on the laptop, as well as evidence that Nick still works for Polygon, and that he still makes videos. He then heads to the Polygon youtube channel, where he sees tons of him, Pat, and Simone, but no Griffin. He nudges Griffin, and Griffin leans over to look at Nick’s screen and Griffin hums. 

“I thought so. I think in this world I don’t work for Polygon. I can find some bits of freelance writing from me on the site, and I can find freelance stuff for other game websites, but I think. It sounds shallow, but maybe we’re just not as famous in this world?”

Nick hums in agreement, too focused on reading a comment thread on one of his and Simone’s videos. People are talking about his sexuality and shipping him with both Simone and Pat, and referring to Griffin as Nick’s husband ‘podcast dude.’

Nick’s glad that this universe’s version of him also inspires the same sexuality confusion from strangers on youtube who inexplicably care who Nick is attracted to. He points at the comments to get Griffin to read them.

“Are you proud of your title, Podcast Dude”

“Nick I have been working my whole life to be the Podcast Dude. I have killed so many others, all other brands in comedy podcasting dead. All so I can be the eponymous Podcast Dude.”

“I always believed in you. I’m so glad this day has come.”

Griffin pretends to cry, and they both giggle. Nick shuts his laptop and leans against Griffin on the couch. Griffin slowly does the same, and Nick feels a sigh building up in his chest. He’s trying to not be scared shitless, but they’re in an alternate universe and more than anything, Nick wants to be home. He wants to be covering E3. He wants to hang out with everyone. He’s glad he’s got Griffin with him at least, he can’t even begin to consider how he’d feel if he was stuck in an alternate universe all alone. 

“I’m glad it’s you.” Griffin’s voice shocks Nick out of his thoughts, but he doesn’t want to say anything, doesn’t want to break the reverie around them. Doesn’t want Griffin to stop talking. “I mean. I’m glad I’m going through this with you. I don’t think many people find out they’re married to each other in an alternative universe, but I’m glad. I’m glad this Griffin is married to this world’s Nick. And I’m glad you’re here with me.” Nick flushes.

“Yeah. Uh, same, actually. It’s been really weird being here. I don’t know how I’d survive without you.” Nick says, and Griffin half smiles, goofy and Nick can’t look at him without smiling back.

“That’s what I’m here for.”

 

Later, much later, after they eat sandwiches filled with left-over bacon for lunch, and play video games for a few hours, Griffin stands up and stretches, his shirt riding up and showing a tiny sliver of belly, and Nick averts his eyes, embarrassed to even be looking. 

“I’m gonna go to the grocery store and pick up some stuff for dinner, d’you wanna come with? I found some cash in what looks like my wallet, so we probably don’t even have to worry about checking the cards. Though I do have to question if Alt-Griffin is some kind of criminal, who has paper money on them in 2017?” Nick laughs, and stands to follow Griffin, yawning involuntarily. He’s done nothing today, it’s kind of pitiful how tired he is. 

They trample down the stairs and out the door together, before Nick thinks to look up the nearest grocery store on this universe’s Nick’s phone, which had been on his bed side table. It’s about a 10-minute walk away, and neither of them can be bothered with locating car keys, or their car for that matter. So they wander down, chatting about nothing and laughing, and Nick loves Griffin so much. He had never really thought about it before this moment, the way no one could make him laugh like the way Griffin does, or the way he didn’t like anyway as much as he liked Griffin. It makes him feel warm. 

He wants to always have this. 

That’s certainly a hell of a revelation to have when walking to the supermarket. Nick shoves aside the panic that will inevitably come, and focuses instead on the steps, and the way Griffin slightly swings his arms as he walks. 

The supermarket is not terribly big, but big enough for them, and it’s not too crowded either, 3 PM on a Sunday clearly not being peak shopping hours.


End file.
